Wiggles Shake-Up After Three Members Quit Band

Three members of The Wiggles - one of Australia's most successful entertainment acts - are quitting the children's band.

In a shock announcement, founding members Jeff Fatt, Murray Cook and Greg Page have said they will all be leaving the group at the end of the year.

The Wiggles have sold 23 million DVDs and seven million CDs worldwide since they formed 21 years ago.

Announcing their decision to leave, Murray Cook said: "We've been entertaining children around the world for 21 years and it's important that we plan for the future so that The Wiggles can keep wiggling in the years to come."

He added: "The touring and performing over the past 21 years has meant that we've spent a long time away from our own families and friends. We miss them and want to spend more time at home."

The band members, who each wear a bright, different coloured jersey, have become one of Australia's biggest ever entertainment exports.

Appealing to children aged under five, they are a global success story. Their TV show is aired in 100 countries.

The news of the three singers' retirement comes just four months after the group was hit by controversy.

They re-employed yellow Wiggle Greg Page who had left the group five years earlier suffering ill health.

His replacement, Sam Moran, was dumped to make way for him.

Greg Page told fans: "Singing, dancing and performing for children and their parents around the world has been such great fun - we have been so lucky to do something that we love for so long."

"When The Wiggles asked me to return to the group last year I was excited at the thought of performing with the three guys that I started the group with 21 years ago. With Murray and Jeff's decision to stop performing at the end of the year it's a nice sense of closure to also end my time on stage."

The Wiggles perform to about one million people worldwide each year.

Songs such as Fruit Salad and Big Red Car are loved by their young fans and have earned the group a fortune.

They were named Australia's richest entertainers by the Australian Business Review Weekly for four years in a row, 2004 to 2008, and earned $45m aus in 2009.

Anthony Field, the blue Wiggle, will stay in the group.

The other three members will be replaced by Emma Watkins, the first ever female Wiggle, and Simon Pryce and Lachlan Gillespie.

The Wiggles will begin their celebration tour at the end of the month.